Many factors influence our languages ​​and accents: where we live, where we grew up, what our parents looked like. But in recent years, researchers have studied another possible influence: climate.

The idea that climate affects language is not new, but only recently have researchers had the tools to properly study this hypothesis. Today, large databases of languages ​​from around the world, combined with the computing power to find patterns in those languages ​​and match them with climate data, make it possible to see whether climate influences language and, whether yes, how.

How Environment Affects Language

Caleb Everettan anthropologist who studies languages ​​across world cultures, says linguists generally agree that in languages ​​there is a bias toward what experts call “ease of articulation.” In other words, we tend to use sounds that are easy to produce. But what is easy to achieve may depend on environmental conditions. Some sounds are more difficult to make if the vocal cords are very dry. (That’s why singers make sure their vocal cords don’t dry out, he points out.)

In a 2017 paper, Everett and colleagues analyzed thousands of languages from two databases and found support for the idea that languages ​​from very dry places rely less on vowels than languages ​​from wet areas.

More recently, research published in 2023 analyzed data from over 1,000 languages ​​and found that warm zone languages ​​relied more on vowelsand those in wetlands used more complex tonal sounds. Meanwhile, languages ​​spoken at higher altitudes used more ejective consonants. These are small explosions that occur when the vocal cords are closed, explains Ian Maddiesonlinguist and lead author of the 2023 paper.

Forest cover also plays a role. Much of the inspiration for this work came from studies of bird song, Maddieson says. One of the variables that predicts the complexity of bird song is the relative complexity of local vegetation, he explains.

“If there is an area with a lot of obstructive plants, the song is simplified because transmission through that type of environment is less efficient and will disrupt a complex song that has a lot of trills and changes,” says Maddieson. In dense vegetation and high humidity, simple is more effective.

Learn more: Language evolves over time and islands can foster linguistic diversity

Human migration and language evolution

Human mobility over the past 50 to 100 years, however, means other factors could soon overwhelm the effect of climate, Maddieson says. Once again, birds provide an interesting parallel. When birds move through an urban area with a lot of background noise, they must change their songs to be heard over the din of the city. They either simplify the song so it’s less obscured by sound, or they sing higher so they can be heard above the noise of the traffic.

And like birdsong, human language changes when people speaking many different languages ​​live in the same place and try to make each other understood.

“People coming together with different linguistic backgrounds and reaching some kind of compromise between the contributions of different languages ​​could have such a strong impact on the future of so many languages ​​that it could be very difficult to detect others types of effects, such as that of climate,” explains Maddieson.

Learn more: When did humans evolve language?

Will climate change change our voices?

Does the fact that the climate is changing mean that human discourse will change in response? Maybe. Maddieson estimates that it will take between 300 and 500 years for vocal adaptations to climate to become part of a language. This means that after 300 or 400 years of climate change, patterns of discourse around the world could be significantly different.

Over time, Maddieson says, if these theories are correct, fundamental changes in environmental conditions would impact languages.

However, he adds, “if the planet continues to warm as much as it is now, there will be no people left in large parts of the world.”

Learn more: A new look at our linguistic roots

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Avery Hurt is an independent science journalist. In addition to writing for Discover, she writes regularly for various media outlets, both print and online, including National Geographic, Science News Explores, Medscape, and WebMD. She is the author of Bullet With Your Name on It: What You Will Probably Die From and What You Can Do About It, Clerisy Press 2007, as well as several books for young readers. Avery got her start in journalism while attending college, writing for the school newspaper and editing the nonfiction student magazine. Although she writes about all areas of science, she is particularly interested in neuroscience, the science of consciousness, and AI – interests she developed while earning a degree in philosophy.